May and June 2011 Growing Update...

Lavender in May, Image by MSP

Ok, so we put our tomatoes out way too early...but we were given leggy tomato starts early in the season, and they just couldn't make it indoors anymore!

Unfortunately, only the 2 Oregon Spring tomatoes look like they'll do anything - the 3 remaining are miserable, and we already lost one of the Cherokee Purples. *sigh*  Oh well, we have new tomato babies waiting to take their places!

Tomatoes:
1 Cherokee Purple
2 Oregon Spring
1 Anna Russian
1 Jeune Flaume

We also put into the dirt near the tomatoes an onion that had sprouted in our pantry, as well as fennel seeds that are sprouting beautifully...we've amended the clay with sand and some nice chunky soil, but it still hardens on the surface and pools the water. *also sigh*

In pots, we have:

Aci peppers - Capsicum annuum, 'Aci Sivri' is an old Turkish variety that can be mild to burning hot, can produce up to fifty 5-9 inch cayenne-shaped fruits per plant. They are currently bursting into flower...we are super excited!


Also in our front yard, we have a pallet that has been filled with good soil and we used as a sort of raised bed for herbs and shallow rooted plants like lettuces.  In this lovely garden grows:

Our lovely lettuces - Image by Modern Scribe Photography

Comfrey - she returned from last year! Huzzah! Poultices and oils and salves there shall be!

Lemon Balm - a lovely clump that is quickly spreading, oh, sweet Melissa, you are delicious.

Soapwort - she overwintered in the house, and is now growing merrily. I haven't played much with her yet, and will update when I do...we are new to each other.

Motherwort - given to me by a friend last year, she lived outside in a pot all winter. I assumed I had killed her, until spring began and small leaves broke the soil. She is now blooming!  I love Motherwort!

Spearmint - happy, vibrant, green and icy, sweet spearmint was purchased at the 2011 Asheville Herb Festival and has quickly taken hold of the soil and is an astoundingly healthy plant.

Corsican Mint - this tiny-leaved clump looks more like a moss. This mint is sweet and potent, and is the flavor used to make Creme De Menthe.  It makes a fabulous groundcover for scented walkways.

Lettuce - This has been a wonderful experiment for us...once we got rid of the groundhog, that is.

Another little sunny, dry plot in the center of our front yard has yielded some results from last year:

Lavender - she's up, happy, a lovely green, and spouting out a ton of new stems and starting to flower now that is it June! Yay!
 

Yarrow in May, Image by MSP

Marigolds - these spreading masses have returned and are bound to be lovely in summer and fall.

Yarrow - there's a bit here that I got last year, mislabeled as Chamomile! Ah well, yarrow is my new best friend and I can't get enough of her. Which is good. Keep reading.

The Iris -  My husband's mother sent us a box of bulbs last fall whose lineage can be traced back to three or four greats on the matrilineal side. Only one bulb made it, and it's foliage is gorgeous, but it hasn't bloomed yet. I can't wait to see what color she is!

In the kitchen window:

Basil - crazy, hasty, excited, healthy basil. I foresee pesto in our future....

Parsley - a couple made it through the basil, and will likely have to live outside before long.

Thyme - fought past the basil and parsley, and we are excited!

We've got seedlings started:

Cucumbers - going into their new big home tomorrow (container gardening)
Golden Watermelon - they are gorgeous, and getting bigger!
Pimiento Peppers - FAILURE!  They just didn't come up!

We've put dirt into tubs in the yard.  Inside that dirt lay some seeds:

Golden Beets - all died after too much sun and heat when their lid got left on. *sigh*
Black Radishes - they are struggling, but coming up! We should have three radishes if we are lucky!
Bunching Onions - again...this heat surprised us. We fried these guys too...

On our lower lot, there is a strip of nice dirt along our stone wall which is home to:

Yarrow - this one was transplanted from elsewhere in our yard.  It grows here as a native, it is strong, resilient, and higher than my knees!  I will likely be selling/trading a lot of yarrow this year as I have more than our household's needs require.

Violets - as I mentioned earlier this spring, I received violet rhizomes from freecycle. These beauties have taken over their patch of dirt, and I have violet flower tincture and have been consuming flowers and leaves all spring. *happy sigh*

Wormwood - Artemisia is new to my garden, although I am familiar with her shady history. I have three lovely plants that are big and hearty and will make flea powder and maybe even some infused vodka in the style of absinthe (true Absinthe is distilled, and I don't have a copper kettle OR coil).

In the wilds of our yard, the hillside is pushing up the baby Evening Primrose.  The blackberry brambles have dropped their flowers and are rich with green berry-babies.  Yarrow, burdock, red clover, and other useful nummy plants are weaving up through the warming soil.

Gosh, but I love Spring!  Summer, here we come!

Circle and Circle and Circles again...

Candler in Spring, by Modern Scribe Photography

What a month it has been...camping, festivals, dear friends visiting my home and looking to put down roots in these sweet mountains.  There's been patterns woven, and circles coming 'round to completion. It makes me feel grounded, centered, and in tune with the world around me.

A part of being in tune with your world means walking in a balance between life and death.  There is never one without the other; life feeds on life feeds on life, and all life feeds on death to continue...you cannot have one without the other, and it is not something to be feared, in my book.

Life is beautiful:  I will be putting seeds into the earth tomorrow.  Peas and carrots, an onion that sprouted in my cabinets, some potatoes that decided to grow in my pantry.  I will watch these sprout, but will bring a difficult part for me...

Death is certain:  Of those seedlings that grow, some will die by my own hands as I thin the eventual green haze of fresh sprouts. I will be squashing bugs whose crime is only that they live, and want to consume the same leafy goodness that I wish to consume, and my only right is that I am larger. 

Life is astounding: My yard is bringing up it's own bounty: Yarrow, Violets, Dandelions, Sorrels, Heal-all, Clover, Plantain...last year's green friends are coming back: Chamomile, Comfrey, Marigolds, Lavender, and my Shehan Family Iris!

Death is sustaining: Our neighbor's yard is full of chickens, and a trio of goats who love to visit us at the fence to beg for scratch corn or tender honeysuckle vines.  The chickens there will soon have a coop, but until then, are relatively at the mercy of local foxes, and we often find a mostly fox-consumed chicken carcass being pecked at by the other chickens. Never forget, these egg-givers are tiny, feathered dinosaurs! 

Life is sweet:  And so is a yard full of clover and sweet green grass for our own two chickens to nibble on.  As of late, we've been letting them out of the pen to wander the yard for a bit while we clean out the coop and tend to our plants on the lower lot.  They have been having delicious dust baths and scratching through our compost, turning it and eating bugs and clucking merrily!

Death is merciful:  But the other day, as I stumbled down the hill to feed the chickens, feverish and barely awake, I noticed only one chicken freaking out as usual over her pending dinner.  I let her out, and peered into the coop to find the other biddie standing, puffed up and panting.  She wouldn't come out, but let me lift her out.  I could tell she wasn't in a good way, but wasn't sure what was wrong until I looked at her behind...without going into details, I can say that I knew quickly that the only cure I could give my poor egg-providing friend was a quick death.

Now, I've fished, and I've hunted squirrel. I've insisted upon knowing what it is to kill in order to consume - again, that balance of life and death.  But never before had I caused a creature to die by my own hands that I did not intend to consume, or for the sake of mercy.  It is far more difficult than one might imagine. 

Angel the Goat by MSP

Life is Changing:  More and more people are turning to the earth to provide for them, tilling their yards for garden space, picketing their city to allow urban chickens, and lacking that, supporting local farm markets.  I applaud the effort, and want to remind people about rain barrels, and compost bins, and container gardening, and encourage folks to jump in and TRY new things...it's the only way to learn.

Death is Change:  Next time you throw something into your compost bin, think about HOW it breaks down...your useless, discarded food bits and lawn clippings feed the happy little bacteria that consume, defecate, and thereby create fertilizer for the food that you will eat.  I will watch the plot of earth that covers the buried body of my chicken friend and see how bright the grass grows, and watch her death feed the earth.  I will throw squished bugs to the other chicken as I tend my plants, and watch her grow strong from their death.

We are all part of life, and all part of death. 

The greater circle encompasses us all, man, woman, fish, fowl, hooved, winged, whatever...

find your place and your center and grow from there. 

Dandelion and Violets, oh, JOY!

Taraxacum Officinale by anemoneprojectors

I am sipping a lovely cup of Spring.

When I nipped meself outside yesterday to feed the chickens (and spoil the neighbor's goats because I'm a sucker for a pitiful bleat), I found my yard sprinkled with golden coins, sparkling in the pooling sunlight.

They are Dandelions, people! Dent-de-leon, Tooth of the Lion, golden disks of beauty and health and wonderment. 

You know, that horrible weed that people poison their yards to get rid of? Yeah. That one. I don't hate on "weeds" and I welcome their presence in my native landscape...in other words, I did a dance of joy.

I went through the yard with scissors, snipping the golden flowers from their leafy crown pedestals and managed to gather up a large handful.  I also snipped a small handful of violet leaves and flowers from the quickly-strengthening patch I planted a couple of weeks ago.

After the chickens were fed and the stinky goats fed and petted, I made my way back into the house and put the kettle on.  I rinsed the dandelion heads and violets in clean, cold water and tossed them into a jar. When the water was just about to a boil, I poured it over the flowers in the jar and sealed it up tight. I left it there on the counter all day, and all of the night, shaking it occasionally when I walked by. 

This morning, I put a bit of honey in my travel mug, added a splash of hot water, stirred it together, and then topped it off with the strained contents of the jar.  FRESH dandelion and violet infusion, what a gift!

This drink is high in vitamins, specifically vitamin A.  It doesn't taste like much, to be honest, but there is a definite green flavor, a freshness that cannot be denied.  I expected there to be more bitterness, as I left the green bits on the bottoms of the flowers, but no. It is a delightful, refreshing drink that I have before me now.


Things I want to do with Dandelions this season, and what I know about them:

• Harvest roots and pickle, dry, and otherwise experiment and learn about them. The roots are great for anemia (high in iron!), and are a liver tonic. They also increases hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which aids digestion and allows more of the nutrients of your food to be absorbed into your system.

• Use the greens to make pestos, salads, and more. I'm learning to appreciate bitter flavors, and can feel the gastrointestinal benefit. They are also really high in calcium, vitamin A (½ cup of greens has around 14,000 IU of vitamin A).  They are also loaded with caretones which are known cancer-fighting agents, and help move radiation through your body and OUT.

• Dandelion flower cordial, fritters, cookies, and more! You can do anything with these little guys, and there will be more infusions and teas in my life.  I made a dandelion mead last year - I should post that recipe and share the experience in another post here soon.

• Dandelion flower oil and salves.  Dandelion oil is very nutritive to the skin, and is an excellent oil to use topically for cysts, particularly breast cysts.  Add some aloe to it for an amazing sunburn relief.

Do you have dandelions yet? Do you nibble on your yard like a crazed rabbit?  If you know there are not chemicals sprayed, you should go get your nibble on and learn about this versatile healer that is so despised by those with solid green, boring yards!

What's Coming Up in my Garden?

Spring is close...everyone that I see is big-footed and falling over themselves in a state of twitterpation. We had a lovely, loud rolling thunderstorm last week that must have woke up the snakes, and the goats who live next door reek of rut.  There was snow and rain all at the same time yesterday, and the roosters are losing their ever-loving minds...Spring must be near with all of those signs...

Last week was warm and lovely, a tease to make me cringe these ice-coated mornings of late. I woke on Wednesday and was go, go, going all day!  My housemate and I went down to our lower lot to do some maintenance to the area ignored during winter weather nastiness.

Biddy, June 2010, Modern Scribe Photography

The lower lot is where the chickens live, and since their pen and coop needed a serious raking and cleaning, we let the biddies run around the yard on their own for the first time since we've had them.  I get nervous because there are foxes and hawks, but I am glad that we let them free for a while. They were overjoyed, just a-scratching merrily, trimming grass and bug-hunting. We added new straw to their coop after dumping the old litter into the compost and turning it over for the first time this year - oh lovely, tumbling black dirt! It does my heart good to see such simple beauty.

While the hens kept themselves entertained, Sarah and I raked out the planting bed from last year.  The old dead grass gave way without a struggle in the damp earth, and the baby plants there were easily removed to give room to the clumps of yarrow bursting forth like vivid, ferny fireworks.  I transplanted some wild yarrow from elsewhere in the yard last spring, and now that it's had a year to settle, she sure has taken happy root in that well-draining spot!  I look forward to the smoke blends, the tea, and the tinctures that sweet and potent yarrow will be sharing with me this next season's turn.

There's also a new friend who will be sharing space with the yarrow this year.  Since I've left the swamp, I've missed the giant violets that filled my yard near the creek (read: drainage ditch).  On the local FreeCycle, someone posted about free violet rhizomes, and I jumped at the chance!  I picked up the plastic potato bag full of rhizomes and root clumps and skeedaddled back home like a kid with candy...so when we cleared the garden bed and turned over the soil, we planted the violet rhizomes under the sweet-smelling earth and after only a couple of days, I see heart shaped little leaves lifting up towards the sun, and there is one bud just waiting for a bit of warmth to bust!

It's the strange clock dance of Daylight Savings Time this weekend coming up...all I care about is playing in the widening expanse of sunlight in these warming days. Blessings and warm rain to you all!

Let's Talk About Violet

Well folks, now that I've shaken winter off me like I shake sand crabs off my toes at the beach, I'm ready to share what's been keeping me busy all spring long!

This has been a wet, warm, and completely lovely spring. Weeellll....lovely for a Swamp Pixie or the ducks, anyway. The past month has been filled with thunderstorms one after another - deep, soaking rains that are raising the watershed and filling the reservoirs beautifully!

Because of all this rain and verdant growth, I've been going nuts devouring my yard! Grazing is much more fun than mowing, ya know?

Sweet little starsister Chickweed has been absolutely prolific along my fence row! Y'all remember Chickweed? She has been a fresh burst in my salads, stewing in my vinegar, and soaking in my vodka to make a lovely light green tincture.

Then there is my dear friend Violet. Talk about an amazing ally to have living with you - violets are strong in Vitamin A and Salicylic acid! You know what that stuff is...it is in all of your acne medications and wart removal systems. Just dump out your dyed alcohol-based astringents - soak some violet leaves and flowers in witchhazel for a month or so and then strain. Use that instead! It doesn't burn your face like the storebought cleanser, which leaves my skin red, raw, and tingling. With a gentler hand, witchhazel and violet cleanses your skin just as well, if not better, in my opinion. Apply crumpled leaves to a wart and bandage...change it regularly, and watch your wart say goodbye!


Violet brings me such joy. Seeing her leaves erupt from the ground like the earth itself sharing her heart with me is like a post-February valentine. Just three or four weeks ago I was laying on our new trampoline and noticed little bits of purple all over the yard. I screeched with joy and ran around the yard, picking the violet flowers and stuffing them in my mouth like a kid at a candy factory! Violet is my confirmation that spring is really here and set in for good...violets and thunderstoms mean winter is packing for vacation.

Now...violets are amazing for many reasons. You can eat every single flower you see in your yard and not harm the reproductive cycle of the plant...her dainty purple, blue, or white flowers exist JUST for beauty's sake. Isn't that delightful? Her seeds spread later from smaller flowers that you probably wouldn't see unless you looked for them.

You can eat the leaves, flowers, roots....it is all good! Rich in Vitamin A, her leaves add a wonderful dark green flavor to a salad, or use larger ones in place of grape leaves in your dolma recipe, or stew them up with your poke greens. You can candy her flowers, toss them in your salad for a spot of amazing color, or just be a madwoman like me and devour them straight from the ground.

Anyhow...it's time for me to sign off. There's thunder rumbling, and my computer needs to shut off and hide. Peace be with you, and may dirt be under your fingernails soon!